26:3E-16 Findings, declarations relative to provision of calorie information by certain chain restaurants.

1. The Legislature finds and declares that:

a. Research continues to demonstrate that there is a strong link between diet and health; in 2004, an estimated 65% of adults in the United States were overweight or obese and 18% of children and adolescents were overweight; today there are nearly twice as many overweight children and almost three times as many overweight adolescents as there were in 1980; while the rates of overweight and obesity are rising, Americans are increasingly eating meals away from home, and the food industry spends millions of dollars every year encouraging families to eat in restaurants and other food establishments; in 1970, Americans spent just 26% of their food budget eating away from home, but currently, Americans spend almost half of their food dollars dining out; furthermore, portion sizes in restaurants have been increasing and it is not uncommon for a restaurant entree to provide half of an individual's total recommended daily allowance of calories, fat and sodium;

b. Surveys conducted by academicians from the University of Arkansas and Villanova University, and reported in the American Journal of Public Health article entitled "Attacking the Obesity Epidemic: The Potential Health Benefits of Providing Nutrition Information in Restaurants," showed that levels of calories and saturated fats in less-healthful restaurant items were significantly underestimated by consumers; actual fat and saturated fat levels were twice consumers' estimates and calories approached two times more than what consumers expected; based on these findings, the authors of the article conducted an experiment demonstrating that for food items for which levels of calories, fat and saturated fats substantially exceeded consumers' expectations, the provision of nutrition information had a significant influence on product attitude, purchase intention, and choice;

c. A recent report of the Surgeon General of the United States on overweight and obesity recommended that the food industry provide reasonable food and beverage portions and increase the availability of nutrition information on foods prepared and eaten away from home; and

d. Therefore, it is in the public's interest to enable families to make more informed choices about a significant part of their diets and help reduce the problem of overweight and obesity in the State.

L.2009, c.306, s.1.